Beloved Thai Spot Ugly Baby is Reborn, Gloriously, as Hungry Thirsty

By Scott Lynch

Brooklyn lost one of its great restaurants late last December: Sirichai Sreparplarn’s delightful, delirious Ugly Baby, in which the chef celebrated, without apology, the melt-your-face-off fiery food of Northern Thailand. According to server Napat Ruangphung, who goes by Angie, Sreparplarn was happy with the success of Ugly Baby, but was very tired and “just wanted to take a long, long vacation.”   

Hell yeah, dude. Definitely feel you there.     

Fortunately —miraculously— for the neighborhood, before he left Sreparplarn asked his staff if anyone wanted to take over the lease on the Smith Street space, and Ruangphung and her fellow server Thanatharn Kulaptip, who goes by Sun, pounced on the opportunity. In quick succession, they teamed up with Ugly Baby kitchen worker Prasert “Tee” Kanghae to be the new head chef, slogged their way up through the morass of city permits, and this past weekend, just a little over a month after we all lined up outside for one last meal at Ugly Baby, Hungry Thirsty was born. 

The blessedly quick turnaround means that the Hungry Thirsty team didn’t change much here decor-wise —the walls are still extremely orange, for example— but other than two holdover homage dishes, the menu is completely different from what Sreparplarn was sending out. “We call this home-cooked Thai street food,” Ruangphung told Brooklyn Magazine. “Which doesn’t mean the food we sell on the street; it means the food that families in Thailand have when we gather, for holidays or anytime we’re all together.” 

The vegan kang hed, made with mushrooms and red curry, $25 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Chef Tee makes all his own curry, of course, and a vegan dish called “kang hed,” loaded with an imported Thai mushroom that eats like hen of the wood and deploys his red curry to fantastic, fiery effect. Spoon this over some rice and get ready to start sweating. Your server will walk you through the various spice levels of everything on the menu, but know that the kang hed came with a single flame warning/promise, and Ruangphung told me that meant “Thai spicy.” 

I wanted to see how far Chef Tee was willing to push the heat, so I also ordered the kua kling, a pile of hacked-up short rib and more of those mushrooms drenched in a Southern Thai curry paste that merits a three flame annotation on the menu for “brutally spicy.” And yes, this dish should be approached with caution and respect, but it was also maybe my favorite part of the feast. It’s a complex journey, eating this beast, with a lot of different notes along the way, not just “Oh my god fiiiiiiire.”         

The “brutally spicy” (per the menu and also my mouth) kua kling, with short ribs, mushrooms, and Southern curry paste, $38 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Ruangphung recommended I get the moo waan —basically, a bowl of chewy caramelized pork, served in bite-sized chunks— to temper the heat. She was right, I did appreciate the respite. Thanks for looking out, buddy, but I still have my eye on that sai moo kai tom, with pork intestine and marinated egg. 

Moo waan, a palate-soothing bowl of caramelized pork, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The pair of Ugly Baby tribute dishes here are Sreparplarn’s famous beef shank with Panang curry, which I did not try, and the khoong muk kei kem, which I did, happily wolfing my way through a mound of fat shrimp and slippery squid, all slathered in a potent salted duck egg sauce. 

One of two Ugly Baby holdovers, the khoong muk kai kem, starring shrimp and squid in a salted duck egg sauce, $29 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Kha moo kaki, a showstopping platter of pork leg, feet, and intestine that serves four or five, $72 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

And if you really want to party at Hungry Thirsty, maybe splurge on the massive, “serves four or five” kha moo kaki, a festive platter of pork leg, feet, and intestine. My table neighbors invited me to admire their serving of this beauty, and it made me regret I hadn’t rallied more of my friends to come help me eat. Next time. 

So that’s the hungry part of things here. As far as thirsty goes, the team is still waiting on their liquor license. But in the meantime, I highly recommend getting a Thai tea slushie with your meal, both because it’s cold, thick, and delicious, and because it hits the table in a cute, cartooony animal-head mug.        

Thai iced tea slushie (Photo by Scott Lynch)

On the opening weekend at Hungry Thirsty, the neighborhood turned out for the new team. And they were grateful for the love. “We want to thank everyone for supporting us,” said Ruangphung. “This is our first restaurant on our own, and we are trying to do the best we can do. It means a lot to us to have people come here. We want everyone to be a part of our family.”    

Hungry Thirsty is located at 407 Smith Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and is currently open, walk-ins only, on Thursday through Monday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.